Jofa Recomended

Erica Brown's article is a plea for the Orthodox rabbinic establishment to create a uniform ceremony to acknowledge a young woman's reaching the age of obligation in commandments. She presents a halakhic analysis of the aspects of suggestions for such a ceremony that would include young women in ritual performance. The author wishes to ensure that the next generation of Jewish women will be spiritually demanding, ritually observant, and fully educated.

Since the Bat Mitzvah celebration is not grounded in ancient tradition, much confusion surrounds it. In this volume, rabbis, rabbaniyot, and male and female scholars and educators, come together to deal with the milestone of the Bat Mitzvah from halakhic, philosophical, and educational perspectives. This book contains translated material from a more extensive Hebrew version.

ADDITIONAL READING

A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book, originally published in Hebrew, is a collection of prayers written by and/or for Jewish women from a diverse range of historical and cultural backgrounds. The collection includes prayers for life-cycle events, times of crisis, women's mitzvot, holidays, the Sabbath, festivals, and more. Hebrew texts are included.

Daughters of the King explains women's involvement in and around the synagogue from its antecedents in the biblical period to contemporary times. Susan Grossman and Rivka Haut have added their experiences and studies to those of other scholars and religious thinkers to demonstrate the historical diversity of women's roles in Judaism, to record first-person accounts of the innovative practices now being introduced for and by women throughout the Jewish community, and to ponder these new realities in order to glimpse the religious life of Jewish women in
the future.

Created for parents and teachers to help their children and/or students grow into responsible adults in their Bar/Bat Mitzvah year. The book is designed for students to engage in a new mitzvah every month of the year. Each chapter includes background information on the given mitzvot, discussion questions, activities, and a project allowing youths to practice the mitzvot in the real world. In addition, chapters contain a diary for students to keep track of what they learned and how their experience made them feel.

Contents include: Spiritual Quest; The Life Cycle and New Rituals: On the birth of a daughter; Portnoy's Mother's Complaint, This Month is for You: Observing Rosh Hodesh as a Woman's Holiday, Jewish Women's Haggadah by Aviva Cantor Zuckoff; Women in Jewish Law; Models from Our Past; Jewish Women in Modern Society; Women in Jewish Literature and much more.

Since the Bat Mitzvah celebration is not founded in ancient tradition, much confusion surrounds it. In this volume, Rabbis and Rabbaniyot, male and female educators, come together to deal with the milestone of the Bat Mitzvah from a halakhic, philosophical and educational perspective. Chapter 18 addresses the topic of "Women and Zimmun," relevant to this category.

Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds come together in Celebrating the Lives of Jewish Women to explore and rejoice in their heritage. They reveal in striking personal stories how their Jewishness has shaped their identities and informed their experiences. Some chapters are relevant to celebration of Bat Mitzvah.

The authors discuss how much of education needs to be gender-specific and tell of an innovative program to prepare young men and woman for adult Jewish life, as proposed by Kehilat Darchei Noam, an "Orthodox-egalitarian synagogue in Modi’in, Israel." Both boys and girls are encouraged to adopt normative forms of participation and leadership along with creative, personal explorations.

Professor Joseph discusses the development of Bat Mitzvah ceremonies in the United States. She discusses the responsa of R. Moshe Feinstein at length and compares his opinions with those of other halakhists.